• WELCOME TO THE CROWBAR HOTEL!

    After harboring tape reviews for years with no home for them to rest, THE CROWBAR HOTEL is now open to the public. Our hotel staff plans to review fresh releases as they are submitted to us. The Crowbar Hotel has no turndown policy and will review any physical release sent in, with a heavy emphasis on audio cassettes. In the meantime, we will be accommodating a number of backlogged reviews that have been waiting for their launch. Enjoy your stay and check back often! Hot towels not included. …READ MORE


  • XO’s – ‘(pronounced húgs and kissès) cassette
    XO’s – ‘(pronounced húgs and kissès) cassette

    Chicago / Northwest Indiana area supergroup featuring members of NANCY, LIQUIDS, and BLEEDING GUMS. Supergroups sometimes stumble under the weight of their own hype, fans expect fireworks but all they get is smoke. Not here, tho. This is absolute goddamn perfection. Catchy rock-n-roll riffs mixed together with no-nonsense, no cheat-beat punk. Hell, the first ten …READ MORE


  • COMING DOWN – self-titled cassette
    COMING DOWN – self-titled cassette

    A group of long-running Rochester, NY heavy hitters delivering Revolution Summer–inspired post-hardcore. Well crafted songs with no shortage of riffs, and it’s good! Dare I say… too good? The recording is very clean, slick, and professional. More often than not, that can act like a strike against a band for someone like me who prefers …READ MORE


  • ECFU – ‘Electric City Fuck You’ demo re-release cassette
    ECFU – ‘Electric City Fuck You’ demo re-release cassette

    Extremely limited-run posthumous cassette discography from the Capital Region of New York state. The full output of the band was a demo cassette released right around the turn of the century and now also a live recording of the final ECFU set. Of course I should mention that the band featured future members of ACID …READ MORE


  • KRYSTIAN QUINT & THE QUITTERS – ‘Something Like That’ cassette
    KRYSTIAN QUINT & THE QUITTERS – ‘Something Like That’ cassette

    Debut solo-project release, every aspect done by Krystian Quint, best known from being in Detroit garage-punk band THE STOOLS. Personally, when listening to this tape I hear 9 songs of well crafted power-pop / glam-punk / rock-n-roll, but I’ve always said that music on the ‘pop’ spectrum allows listeners to hear what they want to …READ MORE


  • MOCKTAG – ’74 West’ cassette
    MOCKTAG – ’74 West’ cassette

    Three-piece alternative rock band from Moline, IL, or maybe just a solo project in disguise, as the cassette credits only “Jakob Fucking Martin.” The A-side has seven tracks, while the B-side is hand-labeled: “Side B: ????”. The big reveal for me was that mine was blank, though online I discovered that the band offered to …READ MORE


  • BZDET – ‘Daleko Od Ok’ cassette
    BZDET – ‘Daleko Od Ok’ cassette

    Twelve song cassette from what is quite possibly the most prolific underground project active today. BZDET is a solo recording project that began during Covid lockdown, and the sheer volume of releases is staggering—even I, who put out the band’s collection cassette on my own tape label (Tetryon Tapes), can’t fully keep track. Thinking that …READ MORE


  • PISS RULES – ‘Repissues’ cassette
    PISS RULES – ‘Repissues’ cassette

    A brother-sister egg-punk duo based out of Brussels, Belgium with vocals reminiscent of early anarcho / peace punk stuff not unlike HONEY BANE in her earlier recordings with FATAL MICROBES when she, too, was a young teen. PISS RULES combine that youthful exuberance with driving, kooky, mostly electronic based song writing, still performing live with …READ MORE


  • GLASS DOLLS – self-titled cassette
    GLASS DOLLS – self-titled cassette

    Six-song debut release of slow, meandering, drum-machine driven, warbly bedroom-pop songs. A solo recording project from Montreal that feels rooted in nostalgia. Songs seem written to make the listener wistful for…something. Maybe it’s love…maybe it’s lunch…maybe even the songwriter wasn’t entirely sure what they were going for. Some tracks are atmospheric and pretty, though at …READ MORE


  • WATERHEADS – ‘EP.2’ cassette
    WATERHEADS – ‘EP.2’ cassette

    With an opening track being an instrumental version of the Billy Joel song ‘Just the Way You Are’ where each line seems to be testing a different Casio keyboard preset, I had no idea what to expect from WATERHEADS. After that, however, we have 8 ripping songs in 7 minutes of throwback 80’s style US …READ MORE


  • LETTUCE HEAD – ‘It’s Going To Be Cold In There Tonight’ cassette
    LETTUCE HEAD – ‘It’s Going To Be Cold In There Tonight’ cassette

    Solo project debut cassette out of Rochester, NY. LETTUCE HEAD is the brain child grown and cultivated by Graham Allan Balcomb, with sporadic help from a handful of other Rochester, NY heavy hitters. Musically, most may know Graham as being involved with Rochester lunatic freak-out project CLIBBUS, but I personally always think of him as …READ MORE